130 PLANT PROPAGATION 



sand. If contact with the sand is good and if moisture 

 and temperature conditions are right, little plants will 

 be produced at the wounds and also where the veins 

 start to branch at the leaf base. When large enough to 

 handle conveniently, they may be potted. 



With costly or scarce stock begonia leaves are often 

 cut from their bases outward to the margins, thus form- 

 ing somewhat fan-shaped or triangular pieces two or 

 three inches long and an inch or so wide. In this case 

 the stalk is cut off close to the leaf blade and the basal 

 third of the blade also cut from one edge to the other by 

 a straight slash. This base is then cut into wedge-shaped 

 pieces with a rib in the middle of each and a small part 

 of the petiole at the lower end. The triangular pieces 

 thus formed are placed stem end down in a cutting bench. 

 Soon young plants form at the lower points (Fig. 102). 



Bryophyllum leaves, in greenhouse practice, are laid 

 flat on the propagating bench. Soon they form little 

 plants from most of the notches on their margins (Fig. 

 114). In Bermuda and other moist climates, such plants 

 will form even when the parent plants or the mature 

 leaves are hung on the walls of a room. The same thing 

 often occurs in greenhouses. 



Whole gloxinia leaves are used, the stems being placed 

 in the sand. Unlike the other cases cited, neither stems 

 nor leaves usually take root, but a little tuber forms at 

 the base of each leaf stem. Such tubers are then dried 

 and after a "rest" planted like other tubers. Fig. 115 

 shows a leaf cutting that did take root, but did not form 

 a tuber. It might have done so if allowed to remain 

 longer in the cutting bench. 



Hyacinth leaves placed in a propagating bed soon 

 develop bulblets at their bases. Treatment of these 

 is the same as for those grown by other methods. 



